The Literary World Seventh Reader Part 7

"Why does Opechancanough send us back to the settlements?" I demanded.

"It is his fancy. Every hunter and trader and learner of our tongues, living in the villages or straying in the woods, has been sent back to Jamestown or his home with presents and fair words. You will lull the English in Jamestown into a faith in the smiling sky just before the storm bursts on them in fullest fury."

There was a pause.

"Nantaquas," I said, "you are not the first child of Powhatan who has loved and shielded the white men."

"Pocahontas was a woman, a child," he answered. "Out of pity she saved your lives, not knowing that it was to the hurt of her people. Then you were few and weak and could not take your revenge. Now, if you die not, you will drink deep of vengeance--so deep that your lips may never leave the cup. More ships will come, and more; you will grow ever stronger.

There may come a moon when the deep forests and the shining rivers will know us, to whom [v]Kiwa.s.sa gave them, no more."

"You will be with your people in the war?" I asked.

"I am an Indian," was his simple reply.

"Come against us if you will," I returned. "n.o.bly warned, fair upon our guard, we will meet you as knightly foe should be met."

Very slowly he raised his arm from his side and held out his hand. His eyes met mine in somber inquiry, half eager, half proudly doubtful. I went to him at once and took his hand in mine. No word was spoken.

Presently he withdrew his hand from my clasp, and, putting his finger to his lips, whistled low to the Indian girl. She drew aside the mats, and we pa.s.sed out, Diccon and I, leaving him standing as we had found him, upright against the post, in the red firelight.

Should we ever go through the woods, pa.s.s through that gathering storm, reach Jamestown, warn them there of the death that was rushing upon them? Should we ever leave that hated village? Would the morning ever come? It was an alarm that was sounding, and there were only two to hear; miles away beneath the mute stars English men and women lay asleep, with the hour thundering at their gates, and there was none to cry, "Awake!" I could have cried out in that agony of waiting, with the leagues on leagues to be traveled and the time so short! I saw, in my mind's eye, the dark warriors gathering, tribe on tribe, war party on war party, thick crowding shadows of death, slipping through the silent forest ... and in the clearings the women and children!

It came to an end, as all things earthly will. When the ruffled pools amid the marshes were rosy red beneath the sunrise, the women brought us food, and the warriors and old men gathered about us. I offered them bread and meat and told them that they must come to Jamestown to taste the white man's cookery.

Scarcely was the meal over when Opechancanough issued from his lodge, and, coming slowly up to us, took his seat upon the white mat that was spread for him. Through his scalp lock was stuck an eagle's feather; across his face, from temple to chin, was a bar of red paint; the eyes above were very bright and watchful.

One of his young men brought a great pipe, carved and painted, stem and bowl; it was filled with tobacco, lit, and borne to the emperor. He put it to his lips and smoked in silence, while the sun climbed higher and higher and the golden minutes that were more precious than heart's blood went by swiftly.

At last, his part in the solemn mockery played, he held out the pipe to me.

"The sky will fall, and the rivers will run dry, and the birds cease to sing," he said, "before the smoke of this peace-pipe fades from the land."

I took the symbol of peace and smoked it as silently and soberly as he had done before me, then laid it leisurely aside and held out my hand.

"Come to Jamestown," I said, "to smoke of the Englishman's pipe and receive rich presents--a red robe like your brother Powhatan, and a cup from which you shall drink, you and all your people."

But the cup I meant was that of punishment.

The savage laid his dark fingers in mine for an instant, withdrew them, and, rising to his feet, motioned to three Indians who stood out from the throng of warriors.

"These are Captain Percy's guides and friends," he announced. "The sun is high; it is time that he was gone. Here are presents for him and my brother the governor." As he spoke, he took from his neck the rope of pearls and from his arm a copper bracelet, and laid both upon my palm.

"Thank you, Opechancanough," I said briefly. "When we meet again I will not greet you with empty thanks."

We bade farewell to the noisy throng and went down to the river, where we found a canoe and rowers, crossed the stream, and entered the forest, which stretched black and forbidding before us--the blacker that we now knew the dreadful secret it guarded.

II

After leaving the Indian village, Captain Percy and Diccon found that their guides purposely delayed the march, so that they would not reach Jamestown until just before the beginning of the attack, when it would be too late for them to warn the English, if they suspected anything. Percy and Diccon, in this dilemma, surprised the Indian guides and killed them, then hurried on with all possible speed toward Jamestown. As they hastened through the forest, Diccon was shot by an Indian and mortally wounded; Captain Percy remained with him until his death, and again took up the journey, now alone and greatly fearing that he would arrive too late.

The dusk had quite fallen when I reached the neck of land. Arriving at the palisade that protected Jamestown, I beat upon the gate and called to the warden to open. He did so with starting eyes. Giving him a few words and cautioning him to raise no alarm in the town, I hurried by him into the street and down it toward the house that was set aside for the governor of Virginia, Sir Francis Wyatt.

The governor's door was open, and in the hall servingmen were moving to and fro. When I came in upon them, they cried out as if it had been a ghost, and one fellow let a silver dish fall to the floor with a clatter. They shook with fright and stood back as I pa.s.sed them without a word and went on to the governor's great room. The door was ajar, and I pushed it open and stood for a minute on the threshold. They were all there--the princ.i.p.al men of the colony, the governor, the [v]treasurer, [v]West, [v]John Rolfe.

At sight of me the governor sprang to his feet; through the treasurer's lips came a long, sighing breath; West's dark face was ashen. I came forward to the table, and leaned my weight upon it; for all the waves of the sea were roaring in my ears and the lights were going up and down.

"Are you man or spirit!" cried Rolfe through white lips. "Are you Ralph Percy?"

"Yes," I said, "I am Percy."

With an effort I drew myself erect, and standing so, told my tidings, quietly and with circ.u.mstance, so as to leave no room for doubt as to their verity, or as to the sanity of him who brought them. They listened with shaking limbs and gasping breath; for it was the fall and wiping out of a people of which I brought warning.

When all was told I thought to ask a question myself; but before my tongue could frame it, the roaring of the sea became so loud that I could hear naught else, and the lights all ran together into a wheel of fire. Then in a moment all sounds ceased and to the lights succeeded the blackness of outer darkness.

When I awoke from the sleep into which I must have pa.s.sed from that swoon, it was to find myself lying in a room flooded with sunshine. For a moment I lay still, wondering where I was and how I came there. A drum beat, a dog barked, and a man's quick voice gave a command. The sounds stung me into remembrance.

There were many people in the street. Women hurried by to the fort with white, scared faces, their arms filled with household gear; children ran beside them; men went to and fro, the most grimly silent, but a few talking loudly.

I could not see the palisade across the neck, but I knew that it was there that the fight--if fight there were--would be made. Should the Indians take the palisade, there would yet be the houses of the town, and, last of all, the fort in which to make a stand. I believed not that they would take it, for Indian warfare ran more to ambuscade and surprise than to a.s.sault in the open field.

The drum beat again, and a messenger from the palisade came down the street at a run.

"They're in the woods over against us, thicker than ants!" he cried to West, who was coming along the way. "A boat has just drifted ash.o.r.e, with two men in it, dead and scalped!"

I looked again at the neck of land and the forest beyond, and now, as if by magic, from the forest and up and down the river as far as the eye could reach, rose here and there thin columns of smoke. Suddenly, as I stared, three or four white smoke puffs, like giant flowers, started out of the shadowy woods across the neck. Following the crack of the muskets--fired out of pure bravado by the Indians--came the yelling of the savages. The sound was prolonged and deep, as though issuing from many throats.

The street, when I went out into it, was very quiet. All windows and doors were closed and barred. The yelling from the forest had ceased for the moment, but I knew well that it would soon begin with doubled noise.

I hurried along the street to the palisade, where all the men of Jamestown were gathered, armed and helmeted and breast-plated, waiting for the foe in grim silence.

Through a loophole in the gate of the palisade I looked and saw the sandy neck joining the town to the mainland, and the deep and dark woods beyond, the fairy mantle giving invisibility to the foe. I drew back from my loophole and held out my hand to a woman for a loaded musket. A quick murmur like the drawing of a breath came from our line. The governor, standing near me, cast an anxious glance along the stretch of wooden stakes that were neither so high nor so thick as they should have been.

"I am new to this warfare, Captain Percy," he said. "Do they think to use those logs they carry as battering rams?"

"As scaling ladders, your honor," I replied. "It is possible that we may have some sword play after all."

"We'll take your advice the next time we build a palisade, Ralph Percy,"

muttered West on my other side. Mounting the breastwork that we had thrown up to shelter the women who were to load the muskets, he coolly looked over the pales at the oncoming savages.

"Wait until they pa.s.s the blasted pine, men!" he cried. "Then give them a hail of lead that will beat them back to the Pamunkey."

An arrow whistled by his ear; a second struck him on the shoulder but pierced not his coat of mail. He came down from his dangerous post with a laugh.

"If the leader could be picked off"--I said. "It's a long shot, but there's no harm in trying."

As I spoke I raised my gun to my shoulder, but West leaned across Rolfe, who stood between us, and plucked me by the sleeve.

"You've not looked at him closely," he said. "Look again."